


In My Imagination

by ViolaWay



Category: Video Blogging & YouTube RPF
Genre: Fluff, Imaginary Friends, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-07
Updated: 2013-07-07
Packaged: 2017-12-18 00:07:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/873469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ViolaWay/pseuds/ViolaWay
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Phil has an imaginary friend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In My Imagination

In My Imagination

When Phil first imagined his best friend, he was five. None of the other kids liked him all that much, so he made up a friend with brown wavy hair and big brown eyes who was taller than Phil because no-one else was taller than Phil. Or at least, none of the other kids his age were.

His Mum laughed along at first: she thought it was a cute phase that he’d grow out of in time. When Phil was seven and had Pokémon battles with his imaginary friend and listened to rock music (“because he does, Mum!” “Who’s he, Phil?” “My friend.”) she laughed nervously, but played along.

There wasn’t ever a name for this figment of her child’s imagination. She only knew that it was boy, and that he was a year or so younger than Phil (although the age gap seemed to be increasing: a few years ago they’d been the same age. Other than that, however, the imaginary friend seemed fairly consistent.)

Then Phil turned fifteen, and would be found giggling away to himself in his bedroom with no other explanation than: “It was him.” And she knew that Phil was getting bullied but she couldn’t get him to admit it, even when she sat him down to have a serious chat.

“Phil, darling, I want to know what’s really happening at school. You’ve seemed quite upset these past couple weeks and I wanted to know if anything was wrong.”

“I’m fine, Mum. He protects me.”

“Who’s he?” she choked out, even though she already knew the answer.

“My friend.”

***

He goes to university after a gap year that turned into three and it’s on the first day that he meets Dan. And Dan is nothing like his imaginary friend in the same way that he is exactly the same. They’re to be roommates; Phil moves his stuff in and they discover a shared love of Pokémon and Doctor Who and Harry Potter and all these other little things that should be insignificant but are wholly significant in the end because Phil had always been alone but now he’s not.

Dan is so similar and yet dissimilar to his imaginary friend that it scares Phil a little. Dan has brown hair and when he hasn’t meticulously straightened it, it is wavy, and his eyes are brown and he’s taller than Phil and likes all the things that Phil’s friend liked.

In theory, they are precisely the same, Phil’s friend and his new roommate. But they’re not. Because the hair isn’t the right shade of brown and it doesn’t look how Phil imagined it and these eyes are far more beautiful than anything Phil could have dreamt of. But the main thing is, Dan has a mind of his own. He says things that Phil doesn’t expect, that he can’t anticipate.

However, the truth of the matter is: Dan is perfect for Phil. He is theoretically and practically better and more perfect than what Phil had imagined, and when Phil confides in him about the childhood he shared with a figment of his imagination, Dan smiles warmly and says:

“I guess it’s fate, then.”

That’s the first time Phil kisses him; it’s a few months that their friendship has had to grow into something more and Dan is the only person to ever have not simply dismissed the idea of having a connection with something that isn’t real. He even asks, after they’ve broken apart for breath:

“What was his name?”

“I never knew,” Phil answers breathlessly.

“Can I name him?” Dan asks, his voice a little nervous.

“What were you thinking?”

“Well, I’ve got a brother: Adrian. You could name him that,” Dan says quietly.

Phil answers with a kiss, and “Adrian” slowly fades into a memory, one that he will always remember, but one that is no longer necessary. Not when he has Dan.


End file.
